Truckee River (Calif. and Nev.) -- Water diversion; Truckee River (Calif. and Nev.) -- Water rights; Truckee River Watershed (Calif. and Nev.); Water rights--Nevada;

Because the Truckee River arises in one state and ends in another, because it is the main source of municipal water for two cities, because it has served as irrigation water for thousands of acres of agricultural land in the Truckee Meadows and...

Roy A. Hardy was born in South Dakota in 1886. Having been raised in mining camps, he went to Tonopah and Goldfield in 1905 during their boom days. There, he knew or met many of the leading figures of the day: Jim Butler, Harry Stimler, Tex...

Barbara Bennett was born in 1923 in Oakland, California. Her oral history begins with a heartbreaking description of her early years there. Despite poverty, ill-treatment and neglect she survived and became more resilient, independent and strong....

This is the story of Silver Peak, a small mining community in Esmeralda County, Nevada. As with many towns tied to mining, it has suffered the booms and busts that are inherent in the industry, but the difference with Silver Peak is that it has...

Vincent P. Gianella was born at Marysville, California, on February 9, 1886 to parents of Italian and Irish descent, and he spent his boyhood on ranches in that vicinity. He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree at Oregon State College in 1910, a...

Boulder City (Nev.) -- Biography;
Boulder City (Nev.) -- Social life and customs

When construction began on the Boulder Canyon Project (Hoover Dam) in 1931, the nearest community was Las Vegas, thirty miles to the northwest. The first construction workers and their families camped along the Colorado River in tents and shacks...

In 2011, the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) initiated a comprehensive study of the entire Fourth Street-Prater Way corridor, intending to improve not only public transportation in the area, but safety and livability. The conjunction of...

Leslie S. Kofoed was born in Lovelock, Nevada, in 1909. He received his education in Lovelock schools, and then entered the business world. His early careers led Mr. Kofoed from construction to motel operation, to ownership of a service station and...

In 1900 Churchill County was Nevada's poorest and least populated county, with fewer than 850 residents. It had no appreciable mining industry, and its arid valleys and basins could not support agriculture. Two federal projects would eventually...

Through interviews with 21 individuals with a wide range of firsthand experiences, this oral history project illuminates the evolution of gaming regulation in Nevada. The elimination of organized crime from the state’s casinos might have happened...

Leon Halliday Rockwell, a native of New York, was born in 1888. He received a grammar school education near Elmira, New York, and then was forced to begin his career. As a very young man, he started west, working at a variety of jobs from railroad...

Cora Gage Sayre, a Smith Valley native, was born in 1897. She received her education in the West: in the one-room Smith Valley School; Hamilton School on Geary Street in San Francisco; Carson City; and at Berkeley High School. On Nevada deserts and...

Paul Gemmill is a native of California, born in Clearwater in 1907. The family engaged in mining in California, Mexico, and in Lincoln County, Nevada. Gemmill received his education in California and Nevada, graduating from the Mackay School of...

The life of Harry Eugene Claiborne, born July 2, 1917, had many chapters, from a rural childhood in McRae, Arkansas, to the neon lights of Las Vegas, Nevada; it was a varied life that would eventually put him in the crosshairs of a federal Strike...

The Midtown History Project, of which these oral histories are a component, was initiated by the Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County (RTC) in 2015 as part of its Virginia Street Bus RAPID Transit Extension Project. That broader...

Paul A. Leonard was born in Fallon, Nevada, in 1911. The family moved to Reno in 1919, and Mr. Leonard received most of his education there in the public schools and at the University of Nevada. After graduating from the university in 1936, he...

Gordon Alexander Sampson, a native of Canada, was born in 1888. He received his early education and training in the schools of Toronto. Following his formal education, he entered business first as a banker and later as a business analyst and...

Since World War I Clarence J. Thornton has been a participant and spectator in the life of northwestern Nevada. Born in 1898 in San Francisco, he eventually became involved in Nevada ranch work through his father's employment by the Pyramid Land...

Robbins E. Cahill’s career of service to the state of Nevada has been long and distinguished. He has spent nearly his whole life in Nevada as student, businessman, politician, worker for state and local agencies, lobbyist, and civic leader. Born in...

Richard "Dick" Graves was born in Boise, Idaho, on August 23, 1912. An astute businessman, he spent nearly twenty years in the gaming industry in Idaho. When that state banned gambling in 1953, he came to Nevada in 1954 to start over. Though many...